Organization: United Nations. Office of United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees; United Nations. Office of United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees; United Nations. Office of United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees; United Nations. Office of United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees; World Bank; World Bank; World Bank; World Bank

In the context of Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium
Development Goals (MDG), global movements for expanded access to
education have focused on primary education. In refugee situations,
where one-quarter of refugees do not have access to primary school and
two-thirds do not have access to secondary school, donors and agencies
resist supporting higher education with arguments that, at great cost,
it stands to benefit a small and elite group. At the same time, refugees
are clear that progression to higher levels of education is integrally
connected with their future livelihoods and future stability for their
regions of origin. This paper examines where higher education fits
within a broader framework of refugee education and the politics of its
provision, with attention to the policies and priorities of UN agencies,
NGOs, national governments, and refugees themselves.

Access to education is a basic human right and a central component
of development strategies linked to poverty reduction, holding promises
of stability, economic growth, and better lives for children, families,
and communities. In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
recognized compulsory education as a universal entitlement. The
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (1979) called for no discrimination in educational provision for
men and women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
affirmed the right of all children to free and compulsory primary
education (Article 28.1.a). The global education movement is built on
these visions and is expressed in the Dakar Education for All Framework
for Action (2000) and the Millennium Development Goals (2000). These
frameworks specify the need to establish quality access to education for
all and to do so by 2015.

Higher education has remained largely outside of the global
education movement, within which the focus has instead been on primary
education. Through a synthesis of literature and policy analysis, this
paper explores the place of higher education for refugees in situations
where vast numbers of children do not have access even to primary
school. First, I discuss the politics of provision of higher education
through the lens of the global education movement and its particular
commitment to equity. Second, I survey the state of educational access
for refugees at all levels of education, placing higher education within
a continuum of education including primary, secondary, and tertiary
education. Finally, I examine the particular importance of higher
education for refugees and how it can contribute to the global education
movement, including building upon the commitment to equity.

Higher Education and the Global Education Movement

Access to a complete course of quality primary education is the
main objective of the global education movement as outlined in the Dakar
Framework for Action and the Millennium Development Goals. (1) There is
some emphasis on secondary education, life skills training, and adult
literacy and continuing education, (2) but higher education is not
mentioned in these seminal documents. The global priorities for
education are rooted in both the geography and the philosophy of the
movement. They are borne of a recognition that the greatest challenges
to educational access are in the least developed countries (LDCs),
geographically centred in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia,
particularly in countries affected by conflict or undergoing
reconstruction. (3)

There has been remarkable progress in many countries toward
educational access for all, such that, globally, the number of
out-of-school children decreased from 115 million to fewer than 70
million between 2000 and 2010. (4) Progress in conflict-affected states,
however, has been more difficult; UNESCO estimates that 28 million
out-of-school children live in low and lower-middle income
conflict-affected states, which represents 42 per cent of the
world's total. (5) In Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for
example, only 52 per cent of children are enrolled in primary school,
(6) and just 49 per cent of those beginning primary school complete the
primary cycle. (7) Further, countries that have recently universalized
access to primary education have often done so at the expense of
quality, such that even children enrolled in school are not gaining the
desired skills, knowledge, and competencies. (8) In this situation, the
immediacy and pressing nature of barriers to accessing quality primary
education overshadow concurrent barriers in higher education.

The numbers of children without access to primary education in much
of the global South necessarily narrows the pipeline to higher education
and raises philosophical questions related to equity. Fewer than three
per cent of the eligible age group have access to higher education in
Africa, (9) what sociologist Martin Trow would characterize as an
"elite" system of higher education. (10) In the
conflict-affected DRC, for example, only 0.4 per cent of the population
accesses university, (11) and 70 per cent of higher education
institutions are in the capital city, Kinshasa. (12) While Altbach is
confident that all education systems globally are moving toward mass
enrolment (between 20 and 30 per cent) and even universal enrolment
(more than 30 per cent), (13) many LDCs, especially in sub-Saharan
Africa and those that are affected by conflict, continue to lag behind
in this "massification." (14)

Despite the small reach of higher education in the global South,
the educational policies of many of these countries strongly favour
higher education. Using 1999 data from the UNESCO "Statistical
Yearbook," Su reports that in non-OECD countries, the relative
education expenditure is "stunningly" higher for tertiary than
primary. In Malawi, for example, public expenditure per pupil as a
proportion of GNP per capita is 9 per cent at primary, 27 per cent at
secondary, and 1,580 per cent at tertiary; the relative ratio of
education expenditure is therefore 3 between secondary and primary and
176 between tertiary and primary. (15) In post-genocide Rwanda, higher
education was conceived as the primary mechanism of economic development
such that in 2000, higher education funding made up one-third of the
budget allocation to education. While higher education in Rwanda has
thrived, the primary education system still falters. (16)

Higher education is indeed expensive, and state support for it
reduces resources for other educational endeavours. Moreover, it
perpetuates inequalities in already divided societies. Psacharopoulos
and Patrinos show that the returns to education in non-OECD countries
are significantly higher at the primary level and moderately higher at
the secondary level than at the tertiary level. (17) Research is
conclusive that mass expansion of higher education reduces income
inequality only when labour market conditions are right. (18) In LDCs,
subsidies for higher education are often correlated with higher GINI
coefficients, (19) which indicates increased inequality, although this
is beginning to change in new knowledge economies, where there is rapid
expansion in employment opportunities involving the production of ideas
and information. (20) In cases of underdevelopment and of conflict, the
creation and expansion of knowledge economies is rare as well as slow.
In these contexts, the wealthy benefit disproportionately from public
investment in higher education due to what Su calls "exclusive
participation" (21) of the wealthy and limited access for others.
Existing policies favouring higher education in many LDCs are not based
in forward-looking economic policies and instead can only be explained
by the political power of dominant elites who influence budget
allocations in favour of subsidizing higher education for their own
children.

Large-scale investment in higher education in countries of the
global South, particularly in conflict-affected states, is conceived of
as being at the expense of investment in under-resourced primary and
secondary systems. Given that this investment does not appear to match
the goals of equity that underpin the Dakar Framework for Action and the
Millennium Development goals, higher education in these contexts is not
a priority for donors.

Educational Access for Refugees

Refugees are one group of conflict-affected people who remain out
of school in large numbers. In Dakar, in 2000, conflict and disasters
were explicitly acknowledged as obstacles to the achievement of
Education for All (EFA) targets, (22) and the evidence clearly points in
that direction. Article 22 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status
of Refugees binds the signatory states to "accord to refugees the
same treatment as is accorded to nationals with respect to elementary
education [and] treatment as favourable as possible ... with respect to
education other than elementary education." (23)

Despite this provision, refugee participation in education is
strikingly low. (24) In 2009, the average primary school Gross
Enrollment Ratio (GER) (25) of six- to eleven-year-olds was 76 per cent,
across ninety-two camps and forty-seven urban settings. The average
secondary school GER of twelve- to seventeen-year-olds was much lower at
36 per cent, across ninety-two camps and forty-eight urban settings. As
a point of comparison, in 2008, the global primary school GER was 90 per
cent, and the global secondary school GER was 67 per cent (see Figure
1). While GERs vary by country, GERs for refugees are generally lower
than for nationals. (26)

Despite continued low participation, the current educational
enrolments of refugees represent an upward trend, reflecting a new
emphasis on education in refugee situations. Until recently, education
for refugees received very little attention, with the focus on
"life-saving" interventions related to food, shelter, and
health. There are a number of reasons for which education is now on the
agenda. (27) In particular, the nature of contemporary conflicts means
that refugee situations are increasingly protracted, such that refugees
can spend their entire school-age years displaced. In addition, UNHCR
and its donors have increasingly viewed refugee education as an issue of
security, particularly in the protective role education can have for
refugee children and youth in meeting psychosocial needs, providing
space for conveying survival messages, and developing skills for
conflict resolution and peacebuilding. (28)

Further, this shift within refugee education has been driven by
tremendous growth in the larger field of "education in
emergencies." The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies
(INEE), conceived at the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000, has led
this movement. It is an open network of 5,700 representatives from NGOs,
UN agencies, donor agencies, governments, academic institutions,
schools, and affected populations. (29) The INEE Minimum Standards,
first created in 2004 and updated in 2010, (30) are now the normative
framework for practice in the field, including for refugee education.
The Minimum Standards for Education are also a companion to the Sphere
Project Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards (31) and, since 2006,
there has been an Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Global
Education Cluster, both serving to bring legitimacy to the role of
education in humanitarian response.

Increased attention to education for refugees represents two
critical shifts in the conceptualization of humanitarian assistance.
Euripides wrote in Medea in 431 BC that "[t]here is no greater
sorrow on this earth than the loss of one's natural land."
Land no doubt is a connection to one's home place, to ancestors,
and to a sense of belonging; perhaps more importantly, it has provided
for families' future security. The importance of "one's
natural land" has guided refugee policy for much of the twentieth
century, with UNHCR's preferred durable solution as voluntary
repatriation to one's home country. Increasingly, however, and more
so in knowledge-based economies, future security is less tied to land,
and UNHCR policy has begun to reflect a second possible durable solution
of local integration into the country of asylum. (32) This shift in
thinking and policy includes the provision of education, which is often
perceived on the development side of a relief-to-development aid
continuum. (33)

Moreover, availability of education for refugees reflects what
refugee families seek. It is not uncommon for community leaders to ask
the World Food Programme (WFP) to provide teachers additional food
rations to encourage them to stay in the community and play a role in
educating the children; (34) or for parents to sell their food rations
to pay for their children's school fees. (35) A refugee from Kenya
explains that "[i]n Africa, in the olden times, you could give your
children land as an inheritance.... Now in Africa ... there's no
land, people are many. So the only inheritance you can give a child is
education." (36) Refugees have long been arguing that future
security--economic, political, and social--is inherently connected to
skills, capacities, and knowledge that can accompany an individual no
matter where they may be geographically. In other words, future security
and livelihoods are tied to education and represent a critical element
of humanitarian assistance. (37)

UNHCR's Education Strategies, 2007-2009 and 2010-2012, reflect
these shifts in thinking about the education of refugees and emphasize
the right to education for every child, youth, and adult of concern to
UNHCR. (38) UNHCR has focused on access to education and quality of
education as the central elements of ensuring the basic right to
education. Given UNHCR's central mandate for refugee protection, a
third element frames the Education Strategy: protection. Despite these
strategic priorities, there are limited human and financial resources
available for refugee education within UNHCR. Within the entire
organization there are only two education officer positions, with one of
them created just this year (2011). Further, the global education budget
in 2010 represented only 4 per cent of the total comprehensive UNHCR
budget, down from 8 per cent in 2008. In 2010, available funding covered
60 per cent of the assessed needs; in 2011, available funding covered
only 39 per cent of the assessed need and, in 2012, available funding is
again expected to cover 39 per cent of the assessed need. (39)

In an environment where resources are so limited and where primary
school completion remains rare, there has been little attention to
higher levels of education for refugees. In 2010, primary education
accounted for 27 per cent of the UNHCR education budget; post-primary
activities, including tertiary scholarships, vocational scholarships,
secondary education, and vocational training accounted for 20 per cent.
(40) From available data, the amount allocated to tertiary education in
2010 cannot be disaggregated; however, in the 2012 budget analysis,
tertiary scholarships account for 4 per cent of UNHCR's education
budget. (41)

The lack of focus on tertiary education was not always the case
within UNHCR. (42) Until the mid-1980s, UNHCR devolved responsibility
for primary education to refugee communities, focusing human and
financial resources on post-primary education. For example, the number
of post-secondary scholarships increased from about 1,000 in 1966 to
over 1,200 in 1987, and to 3,950 by 1987, (43) with direct funding from
UNHCR and from other organizations such as the World University Service,
World Council of Churches, Lutheran World Federation, and the
Commonwealth Secretariat. (44) Yet, in UNHCR's Education Strategy
2010-2012, post-primary education refers to secondary education and
vocational and skills training; higher education is not mentioned. (45)
At present, in terms of the politics of aid, even secondary education is
difficult for UNHCR to support, and "the main challenge for UNHCR
[in tertiary education] is to overcome donor reluctance in funding
scholarship programmes" (46) as "most donors focus on primary
education." (47)

Access to higher education outside of humanitarian structures is
also difficult. Application processes typically require documentation
that refugees may not have, including birth certificates, school
diplomas, and examination results. In countries of first asylum,
refugees who seek to access higher education are often treated by
national institutions as foreign students, with the exorbitant fees that
this status usually entails. (48) In addition, some universities have
enrolment quotas, giving priority to nationals. Further, there are
sometimes matriculation restrictions that serve to limit enrolment by
certain refugee groups such as in the case of Makerere University in
Uganda, which in 2005 did not accept translations of high school
diplomas, making it impossible for anyone educated in DRC with a
French-language diploma, for example, to enter the university. (49)

Despite these challenges, the 2007 Executive Committee Conclusion
on Children at Risk recognized the need to "promote access to
post-primary education wherever possible and appropriate." (50) In
addition, the 2008 High Commissioner's dialogue on protracted
refugee situations identified the importance of access to tertiary
education for refugees in long-term displacement. (51) Furthermore, the
UNHCR Education Policy Commitments, first published in 2003, state that
UNHCR will "safeguard the right of refugees to education ... which
include[s].... equitable access to appropriate learning for youth and
adults ... Moreover, UNHCR will advocate for tertiary education and will
support the effective use of resources donated for this purpose."
(52)

There are several tertiary scholarship programs for refugees,
including through the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) and the
Windle Trust. In addition, there are a growing number of programs that
provide post-secondary opportunities to refugees through a combination
of scholarships and distance education, including by the Jesuit Refugee
Service in East Africa and the Australian Catholic University on the
Thai-Burma border. These programs are mostly ad hoc, with no global
coordination and, as they are also new, little has been documented about
their processes and outcomes.

Formal and global support to higher education for refugees is
exclusively through the DAFI Program (DAFI is the German acronym for the
Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative), administered by
UNHCR. This program is completely separate from broader UNHCR education
policies and strategies and reaches a relatively small number of
refugees. As explained in the 2007-2009 UNHCR Education Strategy, the
program "only makes tertiary education accessible for the most
deserving refugees." (53) These students, from necessity, are those
who have previously had access to the resources to allow them to
complete secondary school and, although data are not available, likely
represent families with higher social, human, and financial capital.

Since its inception in 1992, the DAFI program has funded
approximately 5,000 students from seventy countries of origin in
seventy-one host countries. (54) In 2008, there were 1,779 DAFI
scholars. (55) The UNHCR Education Strategy 2010-2012 makes clear that
"there is a need to expand the scope of scholarships and the number
of beneficiaries through the future establishment of similar
programmes." (56) Indeed, there is high demand for these
scholarships, and UNHCR generally receives between ten and thirty
applications for each scholarship that is available. In some countries,
acceptance rates for DAFI scholarships are 2 per cent, and many students
approach UNHCR for scholarships even in countries where none are
available. (57)

Refugees and Higher Education: A Way Forward within the Global
Education Movement

The reluctance by donors in general and by UNHCR in particular
toward including higher education within educational programming for
refugees parallels the general trend toward an emphasis on primary
education in the global education movement, as shaped by Education for
All and the Millennium Development Goals. Signalling the move away from
post-secondary education in the mid-1980s, a review of UNHCR's
education programs concluded that post-primary scholarship
"assistance requires a disproportionate share of resources for a
small amount of refugees both in terms of staff time and project
funds.... In a way, scholarships have a tremendous potential for
creating an elite group, long accustomed to privileged
treatment."58

Indeed, in the conflict-affected regions where refugees live,
access to primary education is, as explained above, extremely low.
Further, only 37 per cent of camp-based refugees have access to
secondary school and, even though students in search of secondary
education often move to urban areas, urban refugees also face great
challenges of access, with only 31 per cent of secondary-school age
refugees enrolled. (59) In the settings where refugees live,
comprehensive and accessible systems of primary and secondary education
are rare, making equitable admissions strategies for higher education
difficult. (60)

Yet just as within the broader global education movement, lack of
investment in higher education is a double-edged sword. On the one hand,
prioritizing resources for primary and secondary education better meets
the needs of the vast number of children and youth who do not have
access to these levels of education. It addresses equity goals over the
short term. On the other hand, ignoring the development of higher
education has negative long-term consequences both for individuals and
society. For example, recent research by the World Bank concludes that
private returns to tertiary education are often equal to the private
returns to primary education, in that each additional year can yield
wages 10 to 15 per cent higher. (61) While these private returns are
often inequitably distributed, the economic growth generated by the
high-level skills cultivated through higher education can also have
widespread societal benefits. The World Bank presents evidence that a
one-year increase in average higher education levels would raise the
annual growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in sub-Saharan Africa by
0.39 percentage points while simultaneously increasing the long-run
level of African GDP per capita by 12 percent. (62) Given current access
to higher education in many LDCs, this increase in average education
levels is a long way off, yet these individual and societal benefits
underscore the importance of attention to this sector of education
within the global education movement.

There are three further reasons why the provision of higher
education for refugees, in particular, is critical to the overall goals
of the global education movement, particularly its commitment to equity.
First, higher education, like primary and secondary, is an instrument of
protection in refugee contexts. The recognition by donors, agencies, and
refugees themselves of the protective role education can play has
translated into a funding priority particularly at the primary level.
There is, however, also a growing recognition of the protective role of
education for youth in conflict settings. (63) Reflecting this
understanding, US President Obama's much-publicized Global
Engagement Initiative includes a component to engage youth in the Muslim
world through education as a peacebuilding and counter-terrorism
endeavour. (64) Indeed, for youth, the protective role played by access
to secondary and higher education includes the provision of productive
post-primary opportunities for positive growth and development and
"keeping them out of military service." (65)

Second, and related, access to higher education contributes to the
rebuilding of individual refugees' lives and the realization of
durable solutions. The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC),
in Article 29, binds states to "make higher education accessible to
all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means," (66) and
the INEE Minimum Standards advocate equal access to the education that
each individual student needs, be that primary school or university.
(67) Refugees who have completed secondary school almost universally
voice the desire to attend university, as the Women's Refugee
Commission found among Iraqi refugees in Jordan, for example. (68) This
desire may be linked to possible economic benefits made more likely
through further education. It may also be an alternative to the labour
market, since "if access to the labor market is limited for young
people, as it often is in situations of emergency and reconstruction,
they need the stimulus and challenge of education to absorb their
energies and lessen their frustrations and anxiety about the
future." (69) In both cases, the opportunity of education provides
refugees with the ability to think about the future. (70) Unlike a focus
on survival, which generally reduces people to passive recipients and
does not recognize the human thirst for knowledge acquisition that
enables one to think about the future and to plan and strategize for
one's family, experiences with higher education allow for a shift
in thinking toward considerations of the possible and potential. (71)

Third, higher education is a tool of reconstruction. Investment in
higher education not only meets the needs of individual refugees and
their individual durable solutions but also contributes to the
development of the human and social capital necessary for future
reconstruction and economic development in countries or regions of
origin. (72) A study of the DAFI program for Afghan refugees, for
example, demonstrates "a direct link between a refugee programme
focused on tertiary education and national reconstruction." In
particular, refugees who had access to higher education found it more
viable to move back home post-conflict and did so early in the
repatriation process. The study further shows that over 70 per cent work
as civil servants or as NGO managers, filling much-needed roles in a
society in the process of rebuilding. (73) Further, in 2008,
approximately 6 per cent of DAFI students were engaged in teacher
training activities. (74) A cadre of teachers with this kind of training
is essential for rebuilding an education system, often a central
component of post-conflict reconstruction. (75) So while a focus on
primary education may be logical when viewed narrowly through a lens of
equity, a universal--and equitable-system of primary education requires
teachers who are produced in the secondary and tertiary systems. (76)

In conclusion, the provision of higher education for refugees is
clearly in need of attention within the global education movement. In
LDCs and particularly in conflict-affected countries, higher education
has been largely ignored, with the focus of educational development and
aid aimed at meeting the Education for All and Millennium Development
Goal targets of primary education. Higher education for refugees, most
of whom live in LDCs, has followed this same pattern. The choice between
investment in primary and higher education is, in many ways, a zerosum
game. Yet this conceptualization conflicts with the reality that the
continuum of an education system, from the primary level and including
higher education, requires investment to promote both individual
development and national and regional reconstruction. (77) In the case
of refugees, this investment requires the financial commitment of
international donors in order to build the institutional capacity of
UNHCR for higher education and to support other initiatives by
universities and NGOs. The discussion about trade-offs between primary
and higher education parallels broader discussions in the humanitarian
field about emergency versus development priorities. (78) Just as in
that debate, there is evidence that a simultaneous focus on all levels
of education--a systems-building approach--renders important benefits
for both individuals and society. (79) Resources are always limited and
decisions necessary; however, a long-term view from the outset can
result in more effective short- and long-term outcomes, including the
investments that might be made to ensure an equitable higher education
provision that meets the needs of individual refugees and the societies
to which they hope to contribute, no matter where their futures may be.

(8.) Keith M. Lewin, "Improving Access, Equity and Transitions
in Education: Creating a Research Agenda," in CREATE Pathways to
Access (Brighton, UK: Consortium for Research on Educational Access,
Transitions and Equity (CREATE), 2007); World Bank and UNICEF, eds.,
Abolishing School Fees in Africa: Lessons from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya,
Malawi and Mozambique (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009); Birger
Fredriksen, "Rationale, Issues, and Conditions for Sustaining the
Abolition of School Fees" in Abolishing School Fees in Africa:
Lessons from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, and Mozambique, ed. World
Bank and UNICEF (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009).

(11.) United Nations Secretariat, "Annuaries Statistiques, the
World Population Prospectus: The 2002 Revision" (Population
Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United
Nations Secretariat, 2001); World Bank, "Higher Education in
Developing Countries: Peril and Promise" (Washington, DC: World
Bank, 2000), 18.

(12.) AfriMAP and Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa,
"The Democratic Republic of Congo: Effective Delivery of Public
Services in the Education Sector" (Johannesburg, South Africa:
AfriMAP and The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, 2009), 2.

(13.) Altbach, Tradition and Transition: The International
Imperative in Higher Education, 4-5.

(33.) UNHCR, "UNHCR Education Strategy 2010-2012 Summary"
(Geneva: UNHCR, 2009); Sarah Dryden-Peterson and Lucy Hovil, "A
Remaining Hope for Durable Solutions: Local Integration of Refugees and
Their Hosts In the Case of Uganda," Refuge 22 (2004); UNHCR,
"Refugee Education in Urban Settings, Case Studies from Nairobi,
Kampala, Amman, Damascus" (Geneva: UNHCR, Operational Solutions and
Transition Section (OSTS), Division for Programme Support and Management
(DPSM), 2009). Also, there is a third recognized durable solution, which
is resettlement to a third, Western country; however, resettlement is a
durable solution for only a small fraction of refugees globally.

(73.) Claas Morlang and Carolina Stolte, "Tertiary Refugee
Education in Afghanistan: Vital for Reconstruction;' Forced
Migration Review 30 (2008): 63. It is important to note that the results
of the study on which this article is based are affected by selectivity
bias, with refugees who have experienced successful employment
post-graduation more likely to be contactable and more likely to respond
to the survey.

Sarah Dryden-Peterson is a Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada post-doctoral fellow affiliated with the Comparative
International Development Education Centre at the Ontario Institute for
Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. She conducts research
on the role of schools in the integration of immigrants and refugees,
the development of communities, and the transformation of society. Her
work is comparative, situated in conflict-affected countries in
sub-Saharan Africa and with African Diaspora communities in the United
States and Canada. Her most recent publications include "Conflict,
Education, and Displacement" (Conflict and Education, 2011);
"Bridging Home: Building relationships between immigrant and
long-time resident youth" (Teachers College Record, 2011);
"Reconciliation through relationships among teachers and
sub-Saharan African families in the U.S.A." (Education and
Reconciliation, 2011); "Education as Livelihood for Refugee
Children: Emergency, Protracted, and Urban Experiences" (Educating
Children in Conflict Zones: Research, Policy, and Practice for Systemic
Change, A Tribute to Jackie Kirk, 2011); "Refugee Education: A
Global Review" (UNHCR, forthcoming, 2011). Dryden-Peterson has
taught middle school in Boston and founded non-profits in Uganda and
South Africa. She was a presidential fellow at the Harvard Graduate
School of Education, where she earned her doctorate in education in
2009.